Chen to receive scientific achievement forest award
Jiquan Chen will receive a Scientific Achievement Award from the International Union
of Forest Research Organizations, or IUFRO. Through various awards, IUFRO honors those who advance science and promote international
cooperation in all fields of research related to forestry. The Scientific Achievement
Award is the highest honor bestowed by IUFRO every five years and is presented for
research results published in scientific journals, proceedings of scientific meetings
or books, or appropriate patents or other relevant evidence that demonstrates the
importance of the scientific or technical achievement to the advancement of regional
or world forestry or forest research.
Chen is a professor of Geography in the MSU Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations. He obtained his Ph.D. in Ecosystem Analysis at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Chen was awarded the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award by MSU in 2020 and
served as a Fulbright Global Scholar during 2021-2022.
Chen is a distinguished scholar in landscape ecology and ecosystem science, focusing
on forested landscapes. He has made significant contributions to international scholarship
through his groundbreaking research on edge effects in fragmented landscapes, biosphere-atmosphere
exchanges in carbon and water in terrestrial ecosystems, and the dynamics of social-environmental
systems, or SES.
He is one of the few scholars who has attempted to quantitatively integrate SES functions
at multiple spatial and temporal scales. His research on the interdependent dynamics
of SES across Eurasian drylands has been particularly influential, as it has teased
apart the influences of land use and policy shifts from a global climatic change perspective.
This has made science more society-relevant and has opened new avenues for research.
Chen's extensive research has also resulted in broad and lasting impacts on global
collaborations, open access of data, and knowledge sharing. This has expanded his
research and academic education and resulted in regular workshops and joint publications
through his 15 years as (co)chair of the Landscape Ecology Working Party of IUFRO
(1994-2012).
The Scientific Achievement Award will be presented to Dr. Chen at the XXVI IUFRO World
Congress taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, from June 23-29, 2024. Other distinguished
recipients include world-renowned forest researchers Eckehard Brockerhoff, Carol Jean
Pierce Colfer, Shannon Hagerman, Henrik Hartmann, Cindy Prescott, John Sessions, Ge
Sun, Chung-Jui Tsai, and Brenda Wingfield.
For more information about the Scientific Achievement Award, click here. To visit Chen’s lab website, click here.
This story by Diane Huhn originally appeared on the College of Social Science website.
